The invention is in the field of optical computing and is directed to the use of the residue number system in an optical data processor for performing logic and carry-free arithmetic operations. The invention is more particularly directed to said apparatus utilizing parallel residue-to-binary conversion.
The residue number system, RNS, has received considerable attention in recent times as an effective tool for performing single step, parallel computation of sums, differences and products. A digital system employing the RNS may be used for high speed, real time parallel processing of integer-valued data.
The following publications, incorporated herein by reference, are relevant to the background of the RNS and its application to high speed data processing.